3D Hand Embroidery for Beginners: Master 9 Raised Flowers

1. Course Welcome: Hi, everyone, and welcome to our quiet stitching space. If you've been looking for a comforting way to unplug, relax, and step away from your smartphone screen for a while, you are in the right place. Hand embroidery is a wonderful, peaceful hobby that lets you slow down and clear your mind. In this course, we are going to move past ordinary flat stitching and explore the beautiful world of three dimensional embroidery. Together, we'll turn a simple piece of fabric into a gorgeous, highly texturized art piece that you can be proud of. Hi, I'm Shanas. I'm a teacher and an embroidery and I absolutely love making creative video tutorials to help students learn this beautiful craft. Because I film all of my lessons left handed, you will always get a completely clear, unobstructed view of exactly where the noodle goes. No matter which hand you use, my instructions are filmed up close and kept simple, making it easy for anyone to mirror and follow along at your own comfortable pace at home. Over the next nine flower lessons, we will build a beautiful sampler step by step, moving from easy shapes to beautiful structural weaving. By the time we finish, your hands will have mastered 20 distinct technical stitches. We will practice nine unique flower petal styles like the Bullion Knot sunflower, the fluffy velvet Turkey Work marigold, and the raised woven pico blossom. To frame our flowers naturally, we'll also learn nine complimentary leaf stitches, ranging from the alternating fish bone spine to advanced braided leaf edges. Combined with our foundational stems and stamen cores, you will have a complete tool kit to design your own custom patterns. The best part about these 20 stitches is that you can easily customize your patterns to decorate everyday clothes like a little girl's dress or a plain top to make them just for me. It makes me feel so special. Along with our step by step flower lessons, I also give some embroidery tips and techniques in this course to help your hands move with ease. If you enjoy our quiet stitching time, please consider leaving a review. Your feedback means so much and helps me shape future updates for our classes. Take a deep, relaxing breath, drop your shoulders, and let's get started on our first lesson. Happy stitching, and I'll see you inside. 2. Canvas Preparation: Hi, I'm Shana. Welcome to our creative space. Let's begin our very first lesson by gathering our materials and preparing our canvas. Here I have a vibrant palette of colorful embroidery floss, our fabric backdrop, a sturdy wooden embroidery hoop, a sharp needle resting safely on a pin cushion, a heat erasable pen for drawing our patterns, and a reliable pair of scissors. For this project, I'm using a beautiful, deep dark green linen fabric. I love working with linen because its natural, slightly textured weave holds stitches perfectly and gives a premium timeless finish to the embroidery. The most important thing is the type of fabric. Look for medium weight, non stretch, natural fabrics like 100% cotton, linen or cotton linen blends. Now, let's cut a piece of fabric that gives us plenty of room around our ten inch wooden embroidery hoop. I'm using my pinking scissors for this. Pinking shears leave a beautiful zig zag edge, which isn't just for looks. It prevents the raw edges of the linen from fraying while we work on our project over the coming lessons. This is my high quality beechwood embroidery frame. Wood gives an excellent grip and a lovely tactile feel. Separate the two rings, lay your fabric over the inner hoop, and gently press the outer dip down over it. To ensure our fabric never slips, I like to tighten the screw firmly. I'm using a small pair of pliers to hold the nut steady while I turn the screw. Now slowly work your way around the hoop, gently pulling and stretching the fabric. We want to do this gradually and evenly so we don't distort the grain of the weave. Take your time here. Preparing your hoop correctly is the foundation of beautiful embroidery. Proper tension ensures your stitches stay smooth, even, and perfectly flat. Before we draw our layout, we need to tuck away this extra fabric around the hoop so it doesn't catch on our thread or get in our way. Thread your needle with some simple green floss. We're going to run a basic running stitch all the way around the excess border. There's no need to be absolutely perfect here. This is purely functional. Just weave the needle in and out smoothly. Once you reach the end, gently pull the thread together the fabric neatly behind the hoop and tie it off with a secure knot. Look how clean, neat and professional the back looks now. Um Once it's fully tightened, give the fabric a light tap. Hear that? It sounds just like a drum. That crisp, hollow sound tells us the tension is perfect and we are ready to stitch. I'm using a white heat erasable pen, which is perfect for dark fabrics because it shows up beautifully, but will disappear completely with a quick touch of an iron later on. To keep our final project looking balanced and professional, we are going to map out our layout. First, let's draw a small circle right in the center, measuring exactly 7 centimeters in diameter. Next, around it, we will map out a much larger outer circle, which is approximately 25 centimeters in diameter. Now, we'll carefully divide this space into eight even sections or chambers. This grid creates eight beautiful outer frames plus our small center circle, making exactly nine sections for our nine distinct flowers. Right here in this central space is where we will bring our very first flower to life. And with that, our canvas is beautifully prepared and our first lesson is complete. Take a moment to enjoy how neat your workspace looks. When you're ready, select your favorite thread colors. Choose your needle and join me in the next lesson where we will begin stitching our very first flower. See you there. 3. Flower1: The Central Layered Sunflower: Welcome back to Lesson two. Here is the canvas we prepared together in our previous lesson. Today we are stepping into our very first floral design, and we will be working right here inside our seven centimeter central circle. To map out our design, I'm drawing a smaller inner circle about 3 centimeters in diameter to define our petals. Inside that, I'll add a tiny central guide for our stamens. Finally, let's sketch some organic leaves radiating outward. I am drawing five small leaves today, but you can easily customize your own layout with two, three, or four leaves depending on your personal taste. Take your time drawing. This quiet preparation is where the art begins. Now, let's choose our colors. For this first blossom, I've curated a warm nature inspired palette, a cheerful, bright yellow for the prominent petals, a deep earthy brown for the textured stamen center, and a soft pastel green for our surrounding foliage. We will begin our petals with the yellow floss. I've got a comfortable length of about 20 " from the skin. To get the perfect texture, we need to adjust our thread thickness. Six full strands would look too bulky while two strands would look too sparse. We are using exactly four strands today. To separate them cleanly without tangling, hold the skin securely with one hand, pinch just a single strand with your other fingers and gently pull it out completely. Let's repeat this to draw out a second strand. By pulling one single strand at a time, the fibers remain perfectly smooth, unruffled, and completely not free. Now we recombine our single strands to give us a flawless four strand working thread. For our stitches, I'm using a traditional embroidery needle. It's about 2 " long, featuring a sharp point to easily pierce our linen and a long eye designed to comfortably carry our four strands of floss. Choose a needle size that feels balanced in your hand. Great, great. After threading and securing a neat knot at the long end, I am locking our beechwood frame into my embroidery hoop stand. Choosing a dedicated stand is a wonderful habit to build. It keeps the camera view completely steady and clear for you to see every movement while freeing up both of my hands so I can stitch with absolute comfort, control, and a relaxed posture. Bringing our needle up from the back right on the edge of our three centimeter inner circle. To create this, insert your needle right back into the exact same hole you just emerged from, but don't pull the thread all the way through. Leave a soft loop on the surface. Now bring your needle tip back up at the outer edge of the circle, catching that loop underneath your needle. To lock it in place, push your needle down just over the outside of the loop, creating a tiny anchoring stitch. We will continue stitching these lazy daisies slowly one by one all the way around the circle, pack them closely together and maintain a consistent gentle hand tension so every single petal looks uniform. U. Oh Here is a closer view from a different angle. I've completed ten petals so far, and the flower is beginning to bloom beautifully. Remember to relax your shoulders, take a deep breath, and enjoy the calming cadence of your needle. With all of our petals complete, we turn our hoop over to the back and secure it with a clean, low profile knot to keep our work flat. Next, we will bring our flower center to life with rich texture using French knots. For this element, we are dropping down to three strands of our deep brown floss. Bring your needle up inside the stamen circle. Hold the working thread taut with your left fingers, wrap the thread around the barrel of the needle exactly one time and insert the needle tip right next to where it came out. Slide the wrapped coil down close to the fabric before pulling your needle through to the back. French knots are an essential, universally loved stitch in hand embroidery because they create magnificent raised three dimensional details. If you want an even bolder look with deep prominent shadows, you can try wrapping your thread twice around the needle. Keep filling the space patiently until your flower center is dense, rich, and full. M Our flower core is complete, and now we move out to our five surrounding leaves. Switching to our soft pastel green floss at four strands, we will use the elegant fish bone stitch. Every leaf has a central spine or a mid rib starting from the base. To begin, we bring our needle up just a tiny fraction below the absolute tip of the leaf and make a straight stitch straight down along that center line. Next, bring your needle up on the outer left border of the loop and cross it over the center line at a slight downward angle. Then bring the needle up on the outer right border crossing it over the center line to overlap the previous stitch. By continuously alternating from the left border to the right border, the stitches naturally weave across the center, mimicking the gorgeous structural veins of a real living leaf. Keep your movements slow, fluid, and relaxed as we complete our very first leaf. Moving on to our next leaf, notice how I leave a tiny intentional gap at the absolute tip when bringing up my needle for the first anchor stitch. This subtle space ensures our leaf tip stays sharp, crisp, and beautifully defined. Continue alternating your sides exactly as we did before. What makes this specific layout so wonderful is its versatility. Hand embroidery isn't just meant to stay inside a hoop. It is a beautiful way to personalize everyday items and fashion garments. I love this dress. See the pretty flower? It is hand stitching just for me. It makes me feel so special. Isn't it beautiful to see how this exact central flower design looks when embroidered onto the yoke of a little girl's dress? You can easily apply this design to your own wardrobe, whether it's on the collar of a blouse, a denim jacket pocket, or even a ready made store bought cotton dress. When embroidery directly onto garments, I highly recommend using a smaller wooden or plastic embroidery hoop. A smaller frame is incredibly easy to hold, fits comfortably inside tight clothing areas like sleeves or pockets and maintains excellent fabric stability while you stitch. To finish up, bring your needle to the back one last time, weave it underneath, and secure it with a final clean knot like this. Our very first flower is fully in bloom. Take a moment to trace your fingers over the beautiful contrast of the raised French knots and the smooth layered leaves you've just created. You should be so proud of your work. Thank you for sharing this quiet space with me. Happy stitching, and I will see you in our next lesson as we bring our second beautiful flower design to life. Mm. 4. Flower 2: The Textured Knotted Lazy Daisyd Knotted Lazy Daisy: Welcome back to our creative sanctuary. See this, our very first flower that we learned together in the last lesson. It sits beautifully right in the center of our canvas. From now on, we are going to stitch another eight flowers around this central blossom, filling each chamber step by step. I would like to start our second flower design in this lesson. Just like our first one, we will start by sketching our layout with our heat-erasable pen. First, draw an outer circle, then a smaller inner circle for the stamen center. For this design, I'm also drawing five guidelines for our petals like this. Let's try some entirely different stitches in this lesson to expand your skills and add rich texture to your collection. Here are the colors I have chosen for this specific flower design, a vibrant pink, a soft beige, a clean off white, and a refreshing light green. We are going to start our petals with this beautiful pink As a quick reminder for your preparation, pull a piece of thread from the skin and let's separate it into exactly four strands. Even though it's tempting to separate multiple strands at once, remember our golden rule. Grasp just one single strand with your fingers and pull it smoothly out from the rest. This time, I need a bit longer needle to accommodate our textured loops. I have chosen this sleek straw needle, which has a uniform thickness from the eye down to the point, making it perfect for wrapped stitches. We are using a gorgeous knotted lazy daisy stitch for this flower. It is a beautiful twist on the classic detached chain stitch, adding a dimensional raised knot right at the tip of each petal for a highly textured professional look. Um Uh Um um Um oh But as you bring the needle point up at the tip of the petal to catch the loop, stop. Look at this closer view. Before pulling the needle all the way through, I wrap the working thread around the needle tip exactly three times. Now, pull the needle through carefully, letting those three wraps form a beautiful tight coil and push your needle down just over the edge to anchor it. Same as before. I'm stitching and filling the space all the way around our guidelines. Let the needle move slowly. Ah. Hand embroidery is so much more than just a craft. It is a form of active meditation. Let this slow repetitive rhythm become your daily retreat. It is a wonderful grounding hobby to help you step away from the constant noise of smartphone addictions, allowing your mind to rest, focus, and reset. Mm. We are almost done with our petals, and you can see it looks incredibly beautiful and full when these textured loops are nestled close together. Now I'm on the very last petal of the flower. Look at this beautiful closer view of our textured pink frame. Next, I have chosen these beige and off white floss to create a realistic, shaded center. Say this first flower stamen where we used basic French knots. We are going to build a similar textured core here, but with an advanced color gradient. With three strands of our beige thread, we start stitching French knots tightly along the outer edge of our smaller circle. After completing a few rows of beige French knots, we change to our lighter off white color for the middle part of the stamen, blending the colors softly. Oh Finally, we switch to our light green floss for the very center of the stamen, finishing with just a few tight knots. To make this whole center pop, I would like to add a distinctive outline with some small French knots around the stamen we just stitched. For this, I am using a vibrant red floss with only two strands. Look at how that thin red border frames the core. It immediately gives the flower a unique, lifelike and natural look that catches the light beautifully. Finally, let's complete our foliage. I have cut and threaded my needle with our light green floss using four strands. This time, we are going to learn the fly stitch. The fly stitch is an elegant, open loop stitch that forms a perfect V shape, making it exceptional for creating delicate leaf veins, fern structures, or cascading vines. Leave a soft loop on the surface. Now, bring your needle up right in the center along the mid rib line, catching the loop and pull it down smoothly. Extend your needle downward to make a straight anchoring tail, creating that gorgeous leaf spine. So we have completed our first leaf with the fly stitch. Continue in the exact same way, nesting the stitches closely underneath one another to fill all our remaining leaves. It creates a stunning lightweight, organic texture that contrasts perfectly with our heavy knotted petals. If you have a hoop stand, it allows you to stitch completely hands free, using one hand above the fabric and one hand below to create a seamless, efficient rhythm. But please remember, a stand is not at all necessary to start your embroidery journey. All you truly need are your own hands, your fabric, and your hoop or frame to build something beautiful. Practice this lesson a few times and you will see how easily you can apply this motif to decorate your wardrobe. Look at this example of a dark purple top a woman is wearing, where this exact same flower design is applied near the neckline. It adds an incredibly elegant boutique quality look to an otherwise simple garment. You can easily use this flower to add a personal touch to handmade gifts, throw pillow cases, tote bags, or ready made holiday dresses. And now we have successfully completed our second design. If you used a heat-erasable pen like me, you can simply take a warm household iron or a hair dryer to the fabric. Watch how magically the white guidelines vanish, leaving your embroidery perfectly clean, professional, and pristine. In our next lesson, we are going to explore another beautiful design together. Thank you for stitching with me, and I will see you soon. H 5. Flower 3: The Dimensional Bullion Knot Rose: Welcome back to our quiet embroidery corner. Here is our second flower that we learned in our last lesson settled beautifully into its chamber. Today we are moving on to our third flower design, shifting into a new section of our hoop. Same as before, we will start by drawing our layout using our heat-erasable pen. For the foliage, I'm drawing a central stem line and anchoring five leaves around it. Take your time with these initial pen lines. They are the quiet scaffolding for all the beautiful texture to come. Let's look at the colors we are using today. I have chosen a crisp off white for the heavy petals, a warm, bright orange for our textured center, and a rich green for our satin foliage. We will begin our petals with the off white floss, pull a comfortable length from your skin, and let's prepare our working thread. We will be working with four strands today. For this specific lesson, we are choosing a specialized tool, a straw needle, which is also commonly known as a milliner's needle. I am using a three inch long one here. Go ahead and thread your straw needle, secure a small knot at the long end, and let's begin. We are framing our flower petals using the magnificent Bullion Knot. To stitch a Bullion Knot, bring your needle up at the outer circle line, then insert it down at the inner stamen line, bringing the tip back out at the original top hole, but do not pull the needle all the way through the fabric yet. Leave the long needle shaft resting exposed on your linen. Now take your working thread and wrap it smoothly around the needle barrel. I have wrapped it around ten times here, which perfectly fills a 1 centimeter long knot. Hold the wrapped coil securely under your thumb, pull the needle and thread all the way through the loops, and gently guide the coiled bar down flat against the fabric before anchoring it back through the inner circle line. This is an advanced, highly dimensional stitch that creates raised cylindrical bars of thread, giving our Daisy a beautiful structural presence. Keep adding your Bullion knots one by one, working your way slowly around the circle between the smaller and large boundaries. Oh. Unlike a standard embroidery needle which has an eye that flares out wider than the shaft, a straw needle is completely straight and maintains the exact same thickness from the eye all the way down to the sharp point. This uniform shape is absolutely essential for heavy wrapped stitches like Bullion knots, cast on stitches and French knots. Because the eye isn't bulky, it allows tightly wrapped coils of thread to slide off the needle smoothly without snagging or deforming your texture. Take your time and relax your hands. My suggestion for a detailed project like this is to separate your stitching process into clear steps. For example, stitch the petals at one time or even take one full day just for this texted outer part. You can then complete the middle stamen on another day and work on your leaves one by one whenever you can manage your time. To finish one complete design beautifully, try managing your schedule alongside your daily routine and take at least two days to finish. This unhurried approach will give you a beautifully neat finish and ensure you enjoy the process without any stress. Now I am stitching our final off white petal, bringing the thread to the back, and completing it with a flat securing knot. Next, we are using our vibrant orange flows to create a dense, high contrast Sam and center. You already know this technique from our earlier lessons. Bring your needle up, wrap the thread tatly around the needle shaft and take it down right next to your exit point. We want to pack these French knots into every single open space within the inner circle. By filling the center densely, it forces our bullion petals to bloom outward, matching the exact weight and balance of the design. With our stamen beautifully finished, let's move on to our foliage. For these leaves, I have separated my green floss down to exactly three strands. This thinner thread allows us to get an ultra smooth, glossy finish for our next technique, the satin stitch. To build a clean symmetrical leaf, we start right from our drawn midwd with a straight line. Then we begin alternating our stitches on both the left and right sides of the leaf, keeping the thread strands perfectly parallel and close together without overlapping. The satin stitch is a fundamental embroidery technique used to fill shapes with flat, continuous parallel lines of thread that catch the light like polished silk. For the small supporting stems, we use a series of clean straight stitches. Continue following this parallel pattern slowly and evenly to complete all five leaves. This smooth, flat satin work balances the heavy coil texture of our central Daisy beautifully. We have officially completed our third design, the Bullion Not Daisy. Look at how gorgeous the raised white petals look against that deep orange center and the polished green leaves. If you used a heat-erasable pen for your outlines, you can now take a warm iron or a hair dryer to the fabric to gently remove any remaining white guidelines, leaving your work perfectly clean and professional. Look at this cotton maroon cushion stitched with the exact same design. In our next lesson, we will step into another beautiful chamber to learn a brand new design. Take a well deserved rest. Happy stitching, and I will see you soon. 6. Flower 4: The Concentric Woven Wheel Rose: Stepping into a brand new section of our canvas to build our fourth unique flower design. Same as before. Let's begin by drawing our structural guidelines using our heat-erasable pen. First, map out your outer boundary and then sketch the smaller inner circle for the steam in center. Next, we are going to divide this outer petal ring into exactly five equal sections by drawing five straight radiating lines like spokes on a wheel. A deep, vibrant red for our prominent petals, a soft, delicate yellow for our textured stamen, and a fresh green for our surrounding foliage. Go ahead and thread your needle with all six strands, secure a small knot at the end, and let's begin. We are stitching five straight grounding stitches to create our separations. These five spokes form the structural anchor for our weaving. It is crucial to have an odd number of spokes like five or seven. Otherwise, the weaving pattern will not alternate, and the thread will unwrap itself. We are going to stitch a magnificent woven stitch, which is also widely known as the Woven rose. This is an essential, universally loved stitch in hand embroidery because it creates a highly realistic, three dimensional rose bud that looks incredibly complex, but is deeply relaxing. Now that our five straight foundation soaks are securely in place, I am changing my needle to a tapestry needle for the weaving process. From this point forward, your needle will not pierce the fabric at all until the flour is finished. Slide your needle underneath the first spoke, skip the next one, slide under the third and over the fourth, alternating except one stitch each time. To avoid catching the sharp point of your needle on the background linen or the existing threads, a wonderful tip is to pass your needle through eye first. This blunt end glides effortlessly over and under the structures. Mmm. Using the full thickness of the floss is absolutely intentional here. It creates maximum volume and a heavy raised dimension that makes the flower bloom dramatically off the linen fabric. Continue looping around the wheel, watching how the red thread naturally builds upon itself to form an elegant, coiled rose with deep luxurious shadows. Do not pull the thread too tightly. Let the loops relax and drape softly to form natural organic layers. To add even more fullness and structure to our blossom, I'm finishing the petals by adding a few delicate straight stitches immediately around the outer edges of the woven gel. A Once the space is completely full, carry your needle to the back, secure it with a flat knot, and our petals are done. And For the core of our rose, I have chosen the soft delicate yellow floss, and this time, I've separated it into three strands to ensure the texture stays intricate and fine. As you already know from our previous chambers, we bring our needle up inside the center, wrap the thread around the shaft, and return to the back right next to our exit point. We will pack these French knots into every open space of the inner circle to complete our stamen. See how beautifully the bright yellow center pops against the deep red petals. It immediately brings life, light, and a professional contrast to the entire blossom. Now let's move out to our five surrounding leaves. This part will be very easy and incredibly fun for you. We are going to stitch a classic blanket stitch using our green floss, keeping all six strands intact for a bold graphic border. The blanket stitch is a fundamental structural embroidery stitch that forms a continuous locked edge of thread, making it exceptional for filling leaves with a unique open lattice center. To frame our foliage cleanly, we bring our needle up on the outer edge, loop the working thread under the needle tip, and pull it down gently to lock the stitch in a crisp perpendicular line. So We stitch the blanket lines closely together down one full side of the leaf first, then flip our direction to mirror the pattern down the opposite side. We finish by adding a long single straight stitch directly down the center to form a crisp mid rib and extend it downward for our supporting stems. Continue this process patiently across all five leaves. If you are new to hand embroidery, my best advice is to embrace the pace of the craft. Hand embroidery is not a race. It is a personal retreat designed to help you slow down, breathe, and step away from daily stress. Let yourself enjoy the learning curve, accept small imperfections and let the needle find its own natural rhythm. You can apply this design onto ready made blouses, canvas tots, or denim jackets to express your own creative style. It immediately elevates a simple piece of clothing, giving a beautiful high end uniqueness to the dress that you simply cannot find in store bought fashion. Now you have successfully completed your fourth flower design, and our nine chamber layout is growing more beautiful with every single session. Take a well deserved rest, enjoy the beautiful raised textures you've created today, and join me in our next lesson where we will step into our fifth flower chamber. Thank you for stitching with me, and I will see you soon. 7. Flower 5: The Braided Rosette Chain Blossom: Welcome back to our quiet creative sanctuary. And today we are moving on to our next design. Look at this beautiful example of how this exact motif looks. When applied to the bottom of these three quarter length sleeves, it instantly gives any dress a completely unique boutique quality look. First, trace your outer boundary and then draw an inner circle inside the large circle. Notice that this inner circle is a bit larger this time, leaving a deliberate seven to eight millimeter gap where our petals will live. Finally, like our earlier designs, let's draw our leaf guidelines radiating around the perimeter. Take your time drawing. This slow preparation is the foundation of a perfectly balanced piece. For this elegant flower, I have curated a deep nature inspired palette, a rich maroon, a soft cream, a crisp, light green, and a beautiful, shaded variegated green for our foliage. Let's start with our cream or this light beige color. We are going to use all six strands of thread today straight from the skin without separating them. Once your needle is fully threaded and secured with a neat knot at the long end, we are ready to bring our petals to life. We are starting a brand new petal technique for this flower, the Rosette Chain stitch. This is an advanced, highly decorative stitch that builds a dense, beautifully textured border. Always wrapping your working thread over the needle tip before pulling it through. This creates a twisted chain loop. Now slide your needle horizontally behind that top loop from right to left without piercing the fabric and pull gently. Using all six strands is a wonderful way to bring rich volume and prominent texture to your canvas, ensuring your handiwork catches the light beautifully and stands out against our dark green linen fabric. Okay. This simple twist locks the thread into a perfect raised rosette knot. We will continue this pattern slowly, adding our loops one by one to completely fill this seven to eight millimeter gap between our small and large circles. If you plan to stitch this exact pattern on a light colored fabric or any other colored material, simply change your thread colors to match and create a beautiful contrast. For example, on a white linen blouse, you could use deep navy blue petals with a soft coral center to make the design truly pop. Oh. Push the needle from the back using your finger underneath the hoop. This extra bit of pressure pushes the eye and the body of the needle right up into your view, allowing you to easily catch the needle and pull it through to the front. Keep your hand tension relaxed and uniform as you work your way around. Once you reach the beginning, carry your needle to the back and secure it with a flat knot. Next, we are going to fill our center stamen part. To make this large core visually striking, I'm drawing another smaller circle right inside the center. I've planned a beautiful two tone layout today, filling the outer ring with one color and the inner core with another. We will start with our rich maroon floss using all six strands. You are already an absolute expert in the classic French Knot stitch from our previous chambers. As you look at our expanding hoop, you will notice that every single flower we learn is entirely different from the others. While our last flower featured a smooth, coiled rose effect, this technique provides a gorgeous, heavily braided look for the petals. Once the maroon border is full, change your thread to our lighter green floss, still keeping all six strands intact. We will use this light green to fill the absolute center of the flower. Look at this close up view. By dividing the core into a deep maroon ring and a crisp green center, our stamen looks entirely different from our past designs, giving it a more realistic organic and natural depth. So fill our leaf symmetrically, bring your needle up on the outer edge of the leaf border, wrap the thread around the needle tip just one time and carry your needle down to pierce the fabric right on our center midrib line. We will start from the middle of the mid rib, working our way down to the bottom tip of the leaf, alternating sides and filling both the left and right slopes of the leaf parallel. For these five leaves, we are using all six strands of our shaded variegated green thread to stitch the pistil stitch, which is also widely known as a long tailed French Knot. The pistil stitch is a beautiful variation of a French Knot, where the dimensional knot sits at the very end of a long straight stem of thread. Mm Because we are using a shaded, variegated floss, you will see that as you stitch, some parts of the leaf will naturally turn out light green while other sections will transition into a deep rich dark green. This effortless shifting of tones gives the design a magnificent lifelike quality. Variegated threads are incredibly fun to experiment with, and I highly encourage you to try them on your other standalone embroidery designs, too. Continue filling all of your remaining leaves in this exact same parallel rhythm. Now we have successfully completed five distinct flowers on our master layout, and you are officially past the halfway point of our course. I want to remind you about our main project assignment, which we will discuss in detail in our very next lesson. To truly master these techniques, you have to practice these flowers again and again. Once you build up your confidence and become an expert on these shapes, you can easily apply them to personalize, even ready made store bought garments. To finish our lesson, carry your needle to the back one last time, weave it underneath your stitches and tie a clean flat knot. Take a wonderful, well deserved rest. Enjoy practicing your new stitches and join me in our next lesson where we will review our course assignment and start our six flower chamber. Happy stitching, and I will see you soon. 8. Flower 6: The Hooded Cast-On Blossom: Look at this beautiful design on the sleeves that we learned in our last lesson. See how elegantly the textures sit against the fabric. Let's begin by selecting our thread palette. For this design, I've chosen two harmonious shades of purple, a light, delicate violet, and a rich deep plum, alongside a soft sunny yellow for our center and a beautiful pastel green for our foliage. First, trace the large outer circle, a medium circle, and a smaller inner circle right in the center. Next, let's map out our foliage. I always draw five leaves and mark their center mid rib lines, but you can completely customize your work, changing the amount of leaves and their positions to suit your personal style. To guide our stitches, I am separating the inner ring into five equal sections one, two, three, four, and five. Then I'll mark five matching sections in the outer ring. Our guidelines are ready and we are set to stitch. For our petals today, we are using a much longer needle. Why? Because we are learning the magnificent cast on stitch, which requires a long, completely straight shaft to hold our thread loops. We are using our light purple floors with all six strands intact to create maximum cloud like volume. Bring your needle up at the baseline, take it down at the outer edge of the inner ring, and bring the tip back out at the base, but do not pull the needle through. Let the needle rest exposed on your fabric. Now, watch how to use your finger to wrap the thread. I use my index finger to form a smooth loop, wrap it over the tip of the needle and slide it down. One, two, three, four, I'm wrapping exactly 13 times for this first petal. M, The cast on stitch is a spectacular three dimensional technique that literally builds raised woven fabric structures right on top of your linen. Finally, pull the needle through carefully. The needle goes cleanly through the other side of the wraps. Pull the working thread smoothly to let the textured bar curl into a gorgeous dimensional petal and finish with a clean, neat cast on anchor. I am using a three inch long straw needle or milliner's needle which maintains a uniform thickness from the eye to the point so our tightly wrapped loops can slide off effortlessly. Secure the thread at the back of the fabric. Come up again for your next guideline and continue to wrap and secure each petal. Take your time, relax your hands, and enjoy the rhythm. Remember to relax your shoulders, take your time and do not hurry. Rushing the needle changes the tension of the thread. But when you steady your pace, your stitches will always stay perfectly neat, flat, and professional. We have done our second Caston. Let's add another one here. Bring your needle up right at the edge of the stamen line. Drop the tip down to meet the inner guide and let it rest against the fabric. Now we are on our final and fifth cast on stitch. Our first inner row of petals is beautifully complete. Now that our inner row is done, we are going to stitch a bit larger cast on row with our darker purple floss to create a stunning, natural layer of depth. For this outer row, I am using a wonderful artist's trick. Before wrapping the thread, I take a two to three inch piece of a common plastic straw from an old pen and slide it directly onto my needle. This straw acts as a smooth sleeve, increasing the thickness of our needle shaft, so our wrapped loops stay slightly wider and longer. Continue the exact same wrapping process for this second outer row. After you finish wrapping, simply slide the straw off the needle, pull your thread through, and secure it down just like before. Oh. See, the outer petal is a bit larger and loftier than the first row. This simple technique gives a magnificent natural look to the flower, mimicking the organic layers of a real blossoming flower. Do this one by one slowly and mindfully. As you stitch, let's talk briefly about the embroidery floss available in the market. To achieve this premium glossy finish, I highly recommend using reputable global brands like DMC or Anchor. These threads are made from 100% long staple Egyptian cotton and are double mercized for a brilliant sheen. And you can easily order them from major online craft stores worldwide. Investing in high quality thread ensures your colors never bleed when washed and your stitches stay smooth without fraying. So We have completed all ten petals now, and our purple blossom looks wonderfully full. For the sentistemin, you already know this technique. It's the exact same as before. We will use our soft yellow floss to fill the inner circle with tight, dense French knots. This golden core instantly grounds the purple tones and brings a beautiful, lifelike sparkle to our flower. Finally, let's complete our five leaves. We are using four strands of our pastor green floss to stitch the raised fishbone stitch. Follow the needle closely here. This technique is a bit different from the standard fishbone stitch we learned in our earlier lessons. Instead of piercing the outer borders directly, the raised fish bone builds a dense padded center by anchoring a foundation layer down the mid rib first. We then cross our angled stitches tightly over this raised center core, alternating from left to right. This creates a thick, highly dimensional leaf structure that sits prominently off the fabric, balancing the heavy woven weight of our cast on flower perfectly. Mm Before we finish today, I want to remind you of the exciting project you have to complete for this course. Your assignment is to create a beautiful standalone design titled Bunch of Flowers, combining two or three of the specific flower styles you've learned so far. Take time to match your thread colors and the fabric color you have chosen so they complement each other beautifully. Here is the example design I'm showing you right now on screen. You can follow this layout exactly or customize it entirely with your favorite flowers and colors. I have included detailed step by step instructions and pattern templates in the project resource section of this course for you to download. Now let's move to our second leaf. Take a rest if your hands are feeling a bit tired and remember that there is no need to hurry this process. Um Take a deep breath, look at the gorgeous raised artpiece you have created today and celebrate your progress. We are officially done with our sixth flower design. Practice your loops, enjoy the calming piece of your workspace, and I will see you in our next lesson. Keep stitching. 9. Flower 7: The Plush Velvet Turkey Work Marigold: Look at the beautiful flowers we have completed up until our last lesson. Our master canvas is truly blossoming. Let's start a brand new design for our seventh flower chamber. You already know exactly how to prepare your hoop and draw your initial guidelines from our previous sessions. For this highly dimensional layout, I have chosen a warm, vibrant color palette, a rich golden orange for our heavy petals, a clean off white for the center core, and a refreshing green floss for the foliage. We are starting our petals with the golden orange floss. Take a bit longer thread this time because this specific technique consumes a lot of floss and we want to minimize re threading. We are using all six strands for maximum thickness, but do not secure a knot at the end of the thread this time. We are anchoring our thread using a traditional loop method instead. Pull the floss through, but leave a short tail of thread about 1 centimeter long, resting loose on the front surface. Now, come up immediately next to that tail and go right back down under the fabric to create a tiny tight straight stitch that anchors and secures the thread permanently. This brilliant, knotless foundation keeps the back of your frame perfectly flat, tidy, and completely professional. Now that our tail is locked, let's build our texture. Come up next along the circle outline, go down a short distance away and pull the thread, but keep a loop on the front side that is a bit longer than the edge of the outer circle. Hold that loop steady with your thumb, come up just behind it, and make another tiny straight stitch to secure it again, just like before. When you stitch the turkey stitch, keep a loop on the front side that is a bit longer than the edge of the outer circle, aiming for a precise height of about 1 centimeter. We will continue this exact process all the way around the small circle outline, working mindfully until we complete our first round of stitches. Ah Ah And This technique is known as the Turkey stitch or Turkey Work in hand embroidery. It is a spectacular advanced technique that behaves like rug making, creating a dense field of raised loops. Oh Now we have lots of beautiful loops or rings standing up like structural flower petals. We have officially completed our first circle of stitches. To give our blossom a deeply realistic volume, I'm drawing another inner circle right inside our first ring for our next round. Before we start the second roll, carry your needle to the back, secure the thread end with a tight flat stitch and start with a new thread again, following the exact same tail locking method as our first stitch line. A Do this one by one carefully and patiently, nesting the second ring right against the first. Now we have finished our second round of stitches and the center is filled with a dense forest of loops. Next comes the most satisfying part of this lesson. We are going to cut every single loop right from the center of the loop using our sharp embroidery scissors. Slide your blades carefully through the rings and snip. Cart it nicely all the way around and watch how the loops burst open. Suddenly, it looks just like soft fluffy hair standing straight up off the canvas. Once all your loops are snipped, take a clean paintbrush and gently brush the fibers out. This grooms the thread, separating the individual cotton flies so they blend together into a solid plush surface. Look closely at the flower now. See how the edges are a bit uneven and shaggy. We need to cut these loose ends using our scissors to keep our work neat and clean. Hold your blades flat and parallel to the frame and carefully trim away the excess fibers, keeping a perfect uniform round shape. After trimming, gently wipe down your workspace to keep the background fabric neat and clean. Now, let's fill the middle part to complete the stamen center. Using our clean off white floss at three strands, I am stitching tight, dense French knots right into the open core. Pack them closely together so they form a bright, solid center that contrasts beautifully against our heavy plush orange petals. With our main blossom complete, let's bring our needle to the back, secure it, and switch to our green floss at four strands to stitch our leaves. This time, we are using the classic Lazy Daisy stitch for our foliage. You already remember the Lazy Daisy from our very first flower, but notice how versatile it is. To fill a leaf shape, bring your needle up at the base of your drawn guide, take it right back down into the same hole and bring the tip up at the leaf point, catching your working loop underneath the needle before pulling it through. Anchor it with a tiny straight stitch at the top. Oh Oh Oh as you practice these leaves, I want to give some gentle advice regarding the fabrics you choose when learning these lessons. For the best practice experience, always choose stable, natural, non stretch fabrics like 100% medium weight cotton, linen or calico. Stretchy or synthetic fabrics will pucker and sag under the weight of heavy dimensional stitches like turkey work. Additionally, take time to carefully match your thread colors with your fabric colors using high contrast tones, ensures your artisan details look distinct and professional. Mm To finish our foliage with a lovely lifelike detail, I am adding a clean mid rib straight stitch down the center of each leaf loop using a single strand of green floss. Look at how that thin line grounds the leaf and echoes the veins of real foliage. Oh I want to gently remind you about the official class project you have to complete after you finish practicing all of these individual flower designs, taking your skills off the practice layout, and applying them to a dedicated project is the absolute best way to build your confidence and anchor these techniques into your hands. You can download the sample pattern for the design, along with the detailed instruction PDF attached in the resource tab of this lesson. This download provides a beautiful, uncomplicated blueprint that you can print out and transfer directly onto your fabric, though I highly encourage you to customize it with your own favorite thread colors to match your personal creative vision. Um Uh We have successfully completed our seventh flower design. Trace your fingers over that plush velvety pile. It is an incredible texture to master. Look at this beautiful baby dress featuring the exact same marigold flower design embroidered beautifully across the front bodice. It shows you how easily these texturing skills can elevate everyday clothing into unique handmade keepsakes. Take a wonderful, well deserved rest, enjoy your quiet workspace, and I will see you in our next lesson for our eighth flower design. Keep stitching. 10. Flower 8: The Pinned Loop Peach Blossom: Here's the beautiful flower we completed in our last lesson. Today, let's prepare this section for our eighth flower design. You already know exactly how to trace your geometric shapes and prepare your hoop from our past sessions. So let's jump right into mapping our guides with our heat-erasable pen. Now, I am separating the gap between the small and large circle into exactly six equal sections. Let's start with our peach floss, using all six strands straight from the skin to achieve a rich, prominent volume. We are starting by making a foundational outline of back stitches right along the small circle guide. We will make exactly six back stitches, placing one stitch at the base of each of our six marked petal sections. These six stitches are incredibly important because they form the hidden grounding anchor for our petal work. Now that our base is set, we are ready to build a magnificent, highly dimensional texture. We are going to pin this standard sewing pin directly through the fabric from the outer line to the inner line of the circle, aligning it perfectly with our first petal section. Bring your needle up right near one stitch at the inner circle. We are going to wrap our thread through the pin to form our first dimensional petal stitch. Slide your needle under the back stitch from right to left, bring it up, carry it over the top of the standing pin, and loop it back down. Continue this looping motion, wrapping the thread smoothly around the pin and under the stitch exactly four or five times. Notice that your needle does not pierce the linen at all during the weaving. It glides entirely through the open framework. Once you have wrapped the thread four or five times and the petal looks beautifully full, carefully slide the sewing pin out from the fabric. To lock this gorgeous raised structure in place, use your working thread to make a small, neat knot right at the tip. Ah. Finally, take your needle back down through the fabric to anchor it and come up immediately at the edge of the next stitch for our next petal. Same as before, use your pin to span the gap. Wrap the thread four or five times, and finally secure the knot at the tip before going back down. One of the best parts about this technique is that this design is much easier for anyone to master, whether you are a beginner or a seasoned stitcher. It is also an incredibly quick way to make a gorgeous dimensional embroidery flower. Oh, Come up again for the third petal. Like this, complete all six petals patiently around the small circle, watching how they form a crown of thick raised loops standing prominently off your canvas. Hand embroidery is a personal retreat designed to anchor your mind away from busy digital screens. Allow each loop to take its time, enjoy the simple tactile texture forming under your fingers, and embrace the beautiful soothing rhythm of the needle. Oh. We have completed all six petals around our circle, and they sit beautifully raised like soft velvet loops. Next, we have to fill our center stamen using our off white floss at three strands. We will pack these French knots closely together until every open space in the inner circle is full. This bright, clean core grounds the soft peach loops and gives our blossom a deeply natural eye catching contrast. Take your time with each knot, maintaining a gentle, consistent tension with your fingers to keep the stamen perfectly uniform. With our blossom finished, let's move on to our final step, filling our five surrounding leaves. Separate your green floss into four strands, thread your needle and secure it. This time, we are going to learn another spectacular technique, the raised close Herringbone stitch for leaves. This is a beautiful advanced variation that builds a thick interlocked braid down the center of your foliage, creating a rich padded effect. To lock the loop, bring your needle back down through the very last hole you created at the leaf tip. Repeat this process, bringing the needle up slightly lower along the outer border, weaving under the base anchor and returning to the outer line, following your drawn leaf shape all the way down to the base. A Mmm M As we near the end of our lesson, I want to remind you once again to submit your official class project to our student gallery. Your assignment is to display what you have learned from this comprehensive course by creating your very own custom bunch of flowers bouquet. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the advanced textures, my best advice is to try the easiest stitches first and practice them one by one to build up your confidence. You can choose any background fabric and color that you love, matching your embroidery floss threads to complement it perfectly. You can download the exact sample pattern for the project that I am showing on the screen right now from our resource tab. Take a deep breath, trace your fingers over the beautiful textures you created today, and celebrate your progress. You have officially mastered your eighth flower design. I will see you in our next and final lesson. Keep stitching. Oh 11. Flower 9: The Freestanding Woven Picot Blossom: Look at this beautiful flower design on the T shirt that we completed during our last flower lesson. Now we have arrived at our final flower in this course. Take a deep breath, clear your workspace, and let's draw our pattern so we can start. They are a bit of a different shape this time, featuring an elegant curved tip. For our grand finale, I have curated a comforting, earthy palette, a bright green floss for our unique foliage, a soft beige for our prominent petals, and a rich deep brown for our textured center. We are separating our main circle into exactly eight equal parts, giving us eight perfect triangular shapes to work within. Oh. We are starting our petals with four strands of our beige floss. I am using a tapestry needle this time. Its blunt tip is completely perfect for weaving because it glides smoothly between threads without piercing or splitting them. Just like our last lesson, we are using a standard sewing pin to create our structural framework. Now, bring your needle up from the outline, carry it to the top, wrap it around the head of the sewing pin, and go down through the opposite edge of the triangle base. Come up once more at the center outline and wrap the pinhead a second time. We now have three taut standing vertical threads anchored by the pin. We are ready to weave. With our skeleton thread set, start weaving your needle continuously over and under these three standing lines. We are filling this entire triangle shaped petal from top to bottom. This spectacular technique is called the Woven Picot Stitch. Um Uh The woven Peco is one of the most celebrated three D stitches in hand embroidery. Because the thread wraps around a temporary pin rather than piercing the linen canvas beneath it, the petal is built entirely in the air. This builds a dense velvety fabric shell. Once you weave completely down to the bottom fabric base, take your needle straight down to the back of the fabric to secure your working thread. Now we can safely remove the pin. Look at that. The petal lifts entirely off the linen. Pin the next triangle shape to make another woven pico stitch and continue one by one. There is absolutely no hurry. Take a soft rest, have a cup of coffee, and start again when you are refreshed. As we near the end of our lesson, I would like to ask my students to give feedback or a review for this course. Your personal insights, star ratings, and written words mean the world to me, and it helps shape future updates, refine our close up camera angles, and build new advanced design modules tailored directly to what you want to learn next. While I complete these eight petals, let's talk briefly about our equipment. As you can see, I am using my professional hoop stand to record these video tutorials. A hoop stand is incredibly convenient because it clamps your frame securely, leaving both of your hands completely free to stitch and manage camera angles smoothly. You can certainly purchase one online if you plan to create your own digital tutorials, but please know it is not necessary for this course. You can just hold your embroidery hoop frame in your hand and stitch easily anywhere you feel comfortable. A We have successfully completed all eight petals now and see how beautifully these woven picos stand up right off the fabric, creating a glorious three dimensional crown. To make sure they remain perfectly positioned, let me secure them nicely inside the smaller circle edge. I am using a single strand of our same beige thread. Come up right on the small circle outline, pass your needle directly through the loose tip of one woven pico petal and take it down into the exact same fabric hole. Come up once more to lock and secure it twice. Do this one by one for all eight sections. H oh, I am using a high quality beechwood embroidery hoop. It provides exceptional drum like fabric tension and features a smooth splinter free finish. If you explore online craft stores, you will also find colorful plastic hoops, flexible four wood rubber hoops, and heavy duty steel spring hoops. They come in many shapes too, classic round, elegant ovals for long patterns and modern squares. For beginners, a simple six to eight inch round wooden hoop is always the perfect place to start. This is a wonderful versatile stitch to create various realistic blossoms. Now, let's complete the center of our flower. We are using our rich brown thread to pack dense, single wrapped French knots directly into the inner circle core. Pack them tightly together until the golden brown core is solid, creating a beautiful organic contrast against our beige petals. Finally, let's bring our foliage to life. This time we are trying a bit of a different technique, stitching the magnificent braid stitch to decorate and fill our curved leaves. The braid stitch is an exquisite, highly texturized stitch that loops thread continuously over itself to create a heavy raised ridge down the center of your leaf. But do not worry you will find the perfect comforting rhythm after doing it just a few times. Earn this hand embroidery slowly and enjoy what you are doing. Let the needle follow the elegant curve of the leaf naturally. You have officially learned 20 distinct technical stitches, including nine unique flower petal variations, nine organic leaf styles, and our foundational stems and stamen cores. Don't be afraid to experiment with your background fabric choices or mix different thread tones together. By changing your palette to match your personal style, you can build completely original botanical layouts that display your unique creative voice. Take your time, let your hands move at a relaxed pace, and enjoy watching your custom patterns come to life. Look at our magnificent completed canvas. We have successfully finished all of our flower designs. As we conclude our final stitching session, let's review the incredible milestones you have achieved. Watch how this flower design can be applied to a dress to instantly transform a simple piece of clothing into a premium boutique quality garment. You can remove marks using an iron if you used a heat-erasable pen to sketch your initial guidelines. You can download your sample pattern with instructions for your final project. Find the link in this course description. Take a deep breath. Look at the incredible artistry your hands have produced and celebrate your new skills. Thank you so much for sharing this peaceful therapeutic space with me. Keep practicing, enjoy the calm comfort of your craft, and keep stitching. Goodbye. 12. Final Project: Stitch Your Own Freehand 3D Botanical Sampler: Take a deep breath, settle into a comfortable seat, and welcome back to our peaceful stitching corner. We are in the final lesson in this course, learning how to combine everything you have mastered so far to create a completely custom free hand botanical masterwork directly on fabric. I want to take a gentle moment to remind you about your first milestone project. If you haven't already, make sure to complete Assignment one, which we walked through in our earlier modules using that beautiful beginner friendly layout. Once you feel confident with those initial shapes, you will be completely ready to tackle this grand final project. Once you have finished your first foundational project, you are ready to download this advanced pattern blueprint and begin your master embroidery Canvas. For the canvas, I decided to go with this beautiful oval hoop. I didn't overthink the plan for this one. I just wanted to stitch for relaxation and see where it went. Getting the fabric nice and tight in the hoop and now for the easy part, tracing. See how clearly the lines show through the white cotton when the paper is taped to the back? It's like a built in light bump. This kind of work is all about unwinding and enjoying the process. Look at the design here. We've got a mix of wild blooms, leaves, vines, tiny buds, and baby's breath. I just kept calm and traced away. Creating these free hand patterns means a lot to me. It's how I keep memories and really fulfill my life as an artist. I hope that resonates with some of you, too. Time to pick the palette from my floss plate. Obviously, we need plenty of greens. I picked a rich dark green, some lighter tones for contrast, a few earthy browns, and this gorgeous soft sage green. Let's start with that. We're kicking things off with the dark green. Here's how I like to separate my floss so it doesn't tangle. Just pull the strands out gently one by one. I pulled two strands twice to get a nice thick group of four strands. Threaded my small needle, knotted it, and we are officially ready to stitch. I'm clamping the hoop onto my stand now. Honestly, if you don't use a stand, I highly recommend getting one. It makes stitching so much more comfortable, and as a bonus, it keeps the camera steady for you guys. I started with the leaves using a classic fly stitch. You basically bring your needle up, create a loop, and anchor it down at the bottom to form a V shape. It gives you that perfect lei fin look automatically. To fill out the empty space on the side of this leaf, I just added a few quick straight stitches. Once you get the rhythm down, it's just a matter of repeating it. There are a lot of leaves in this design, maybe 20, 30, or even more. But like I said, no hurrying here. That's enough progress for day one. Fast forward to the next session, I switched over to some lighter greens to give the foliage some depth. Next, let's add the stems using three strands of this warm brown floss for a traditional stem stitch. We are introducing a beautiful new technique that we didn't cover in our initial nine flower chambers, the stem stitch. You just want to take small consistent stitches, keeping your working thread to one side of the needle to create that nice twisted vino. The stem stitch is a timeless structural line technique that creates a slightly twisted rope like texture, making it completely ideal for stitching organic tree bark, curved flower stems, and flowing botanical vines. W With this beige floss, I'm adding little clusters of leaves using the Lazy Daisy stitch. It's just a simple detached chain loop that looks like a tiny, perfect leaf sprout. A Next up, baby's breath. I know it's usually white, but I decided to go rogue and use a soft light pink instead. We're placing French knots right at the tips of the stems and vines. Just wrap the thread around your needle twice, pop it back down close to where you came up and pull it through. And that's a wrap for today. I usually only stitch for one or 2 hours a day to keep it fun. On the days I don't work, traveling is my absolute favorite thing to do. I love exploring beautiful places here in Sri Lanka. A few days later, I'm back at it. I love stitching outdoors with the birds singing in the background until this happened. Yep, my hoop completely slipped out of the stand and dropped real life blogging right there. As you can see, the hoop is still only about 10% to 15% filled at this point. There's a ton left to do. But you know what? It's all about finding that balance. When you're managing multiple projects or a busy day to day life, the secret isn't running yourself ragged to meet a schedule. It's about setting small, realistic windows to work, enjoying the break and coming back when you're ready. Remember that green we picked out earlier? I'm using it now to tackle some small leaves with a fish bone stitch. You just alternate overlapping stitches from the left and right sides toward the center line. It creates a beautiful woven texture. Oh. Let me show you a really cool trick for this flower bud. I'm taking a tiny piece of polyester wool padding and laying it right on the pattern. Ah. I hold it down with my finger and tack it in place with a few small straight yellow stitches. Once the padding is secure, I stitch right over it with a smooth satin stitch using yellow floss. The needle buries the wool completely, leaving you with this amazing puffed up three D look. M After finishing the yellow part, I dropped down to two strands to make it extra smooth. Then did the exact same thing for the green base of the bud. Look how neat that looks. The buds turned out great, so it's time to tackle more leaves. Oh. This time, I tried something new, using a light brown thread and then transitioning it into a darker brown on the same leaf. What do you think? Does it look good? I think it worked out. You know, sometimes in embroidery and in life, we make choices that don't pan out. Don't stress about it. Just snip the threads, pull them out, and try a better way. Wow, look at that. We are officially 50% done. Time for a quick break. Back after a busy few days. Check out these pinks. I've got four different shades going from dark to light. I'm using them to fill in these accent flower buds with packed French knots. It's so satisfying to see the colors start taking over the empty spaces and bringing the whole canvas to life. Oh now for the best part, look at these gorgeous golden oranges and light greens. I'm grabbing a longer needle for the main flowers. If you look at the pattern, we have an outer 1 " circle guide and two smaller inner circles. I'm starting between the inner circles with the orange floss to make cast on stitches for the petals. You wrap the thread around the needle multiple times before pulling it through to create a raised dimensional loop. M while I was working on this white cotton, I started wondering, how cool would this design look on a dark fabric? Anyone want to guess? Would it look better or worse? I'll make sure to put the pattern up for downloads so you guys can try it out on different colors. I actually want to see it myself. So I think I'll ask an AI tool to swap the fabric color to black later just to see how it looks. Let's finish the stitching first. For the next layer, I'm using six strands of yellow floss. But here's a little trick to make the Petals uniform. I'm sliding a small pen straw over the needle before wrapping my cast on stitches. The straw acts as a spacer, making it way easier to create these larger uniform outer petals. I added five petals to finish the flower shape, then filled the very center with light green French knots. We are down to the final two big flowers. Whenever I get to the very end of a long project, I get so excited to see the final result. But patience is everything here. Let's pause and wrap it up next time. Time for the grand finale. For these large petals, we're bringing back the wool padding trick. This is a six petal flower, so it takes a little extra time. Fine. I lay down the wool base and cover it completely with yellow satin stitches. Look at how beautifully those petals puff right up off the fabric. To make it even more detail, I decided to frame the padded petals with extra cast on stitches. Then I use the orange floss for a ring of cast on details, right in the center, finishing it off with more light green pinch notes. The hoop looks so incredibly rich and full now. I'm just wrapping up the last few open spots with some little filler stems and vines. Oh, and remember how I wanted to see it on black fabric? I ran it through an AI tool to change the background and look at this. It looks absolutely gorgeous and super dramatic. You should definitely try making it on a dark fabric if you download the pattern. But for me, I think I still prefer the classic soft look of the white cotton. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey and watching this piece come together. Oh. Check out the final hoop art. I framed it in this yellowish brown wooden frame, which I think matches the golden tones of the flowers perfectly. We have officially completed the course. Take a deep, gentle breath, look at your beautiful practice hoop and celebrate how far your hands have come. Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful creative journey with me. Happy stitching and goodbye. 13. Bonus Lesson: An Artisan's Guide to Embroidery Hoops: Welcome to my guide on choosing the right setup for every project. From Brazilian embroidery to Sahico and smoking, I'll show you when to use a hoop, when to go hands free with a stand, and when to skip the tools entirely. While I love the freedom of free hand stitching, most of my professional work begins with a drum tight hoop prep. I place my fabric over the inner ring, press the outer ring down, and tighten the screw. I gently stretch the fabric until it sounds like a drum when I tap it. This firm surface is essential for tracing your pattern accurately. To keep everything neat, I finish by securing the extra fabric to the back with a quick running stitch. For most of my work, I like using this beechwood hoop. You can also use this metal ring hoop, especially for thin fabrics. It features a quick release design with no screw. You just press and release. Now let's look at how I handle a project like an embroidery edge border. Because the design is right on the hem, we have to be a bit more creative with our setting. I start by folding the fabric edge exactly where the border will sit. To keep that fold perfectly crisp and aligned while I work with the hoop, I pin the folded edges directly. Next, I slide the fabric into the hoop, fixing it about halfway through the frame. This allows the hoop to grip the folded section securely. Once I've stretched the fabric and tightened the screw to get that perfect tension, I remove the pins. The hoop is now doing all the work of holding that fold in place. Now that the edge is secure and the fabric is tight, I can use both hands to focus on the intricate stitching of the border. It's a simple way to get professional results on tricky edges. If you prefer a more flexible approach, you can certainly stitch without a hoop. Here is how I worked on this delicate neckline lace pattern. By holding the fabric naturally in my hands, I can easily follow the curves of the neck and maintain a soft organic tension that a rigid frame sometimes restricts. When adding an embroidery design to a t shirt or a premade dress, I usually keep things simple. I slide the inner ring of my wooden hoop inside the garment, place the outer ring on top, and tighten. The most important step here is choosing the right size of the hoop. If you want both hands free to manage the extra fabric of the dress, I highly recommend placing the hoop on a stand. Of course, sometimes you don't need a hoop at all when stitching on a garment. For projects involving pleated fabric, like smoking, you have a lot of flexibility. You can simply hold the fabric in your hands to feel the rhythm of the pleats or keep it flat on the table as you stitch. To wrap things up, remember that the most important part of any project is choosing the setup that feels right for you. Always select your hoop size based on your design to ensure the fabric stays steady. Depending on the project, I might switch between stitching free hand for smaller details or using a lap stand to keep both hands free, which is so much more comfortable and even necessary for my larger, more complex designs. You can even choose to work without a hoop if the technique calls for it. Ultimately, you should choose the method that brings you the most joy. I'd love to hear from you. Do you have a favorite hoop or a different method that you use? Let me know in the comments. Thank you so much for watching and happy stitching.